In his I am Second video, Olympian Scott Hamilton recounts the grief he felt in losing his mother to cancer and his own ordeal of surviving a brain tumor. / Submitted

In his I am Second video, singer Josh Turner says money and fame don’t always lead to meaning in life. / Submitted

In each video, a person dressed in a black T-shirt sits in a plain, white chair, lit by an overhead fixture.

One by one, they tell stories of heartbreak and the struggles of life, and how faith helped them make it through.

The videos, with celebrities ranging from Michelle Aguilar of “The Biggest Loser” to Brian “Head” Welch, the tattooed former guitarist for the metal band Korn, will be featured in a $750,000 ad campaign coming to Nashville early next year.

Organizers say the videos will help people connect with God in a nonthreatening way.

“We are trying to inspire people about hope, about life and about love,” said Casey See of Franklin-based nonprofit e3Resources, who is one of the organizers of I Am Second Nashville.

The first step is a billboard, which went up recently along Interstate 65 northbound near Armory Drive. Radio and television ads will follow from mid-February to Easter.

Nashville organizer Angie Clawson has been working on the project since first hearing about I Am Second from a friend in Dallas. The campaign was started there four years ago by a Christian nonprofit called e3Partners, with funding from Norman Miller, chairman of Dallas-based Interstate Batteries.

The ads also have run in San Antonio, Orlando, Kansas City and Evansville, Ind.

Each ad points to the website, Iamsecond.com, where people can view black-and-white videos, each six or seven minutes long, telling how God is present even when things go wrong.

“I want to reach the person with a hardened heart,” said Clawson, “the person without hope.”

Clawson said it took about three years to raise the money for the ads, which are paid for with support from the local community. She’s also been recruiting ministers who will organize small groups to discuss the videos.

Connecting lives

Mark Marshall, pastor of ClearView Baptist Church in Franklin, where Clawson attends, is helping organize churches from several denominations to host small groups. He hopes to hold a meeting with pastors within the next month or so.

In the past, Marshall said, churches have used big events to connect with people outside the faith.

I Am Second is different, he said.

“It’s not a big arena event,” he said. “It’s really to get masses of people into small groups.”

Part of the appeal is the low-key approach that I Am Second takes, he said. Using a celebrity gets people to click on the videos, but the stories keep people watching. So far, more than 24 million people have either visited the website or seen the videos, according to IamSecond.

“Everyone connects to a story,” Marshall said.

The website features several celebrities with Nashville ties, such as singers Josh Turner and Michael W. Smith and Olympian Scott Hamilton. Several new videos with locals have been filmed for the Nashville campaign, though organizers won’t reveal who is involved. Nashville publisher Thomas Nelson also has published two I Am Second-related books.

Hamilton recounts the grief he felt in losing his mother to cancer and his own ordeal of surviving a brain tumor. Smith, a Christian artist, talks about struggles with drugs after moving to Nashville as a young man.

In his video, Turner talks about writing his hit song “Long Black Train,” which warns that temptation is appealing but destructive. Turner says that money and fame don’t always lead to meaning in life.

“There’s no song that I can write, there’s no record that I can make, that will save me,” Turner said. “I do need a savior.”

Each video ends with the phrase “I Am Second.” For participants, that means God comes first in their lives.

Not an easy task

Local Christian radio host Wally of WAY-FM said filming an I Am Second video was uncomfortable at first.

Some of the celebrities in the videos talk about dealing with crises, such as drug addictions or major failures. Wally, who uses a stage name, said his struggles were with more commonplace issues such as anger and disappointment.

He said the idea of putting God first and himself second isn’t easy.

“My biggest problem is that I am not second,” he said.

“I put myself and my needs before my relationship with God. If you look at all sin, it comes back to selfishness.”

He hopes the videos will connect to viewers on a human level, rather than being seen as a marketing ploy to get people to come to church.